Libyan Rebel Russia's state-run arms exporter has lost a total of $4 billion over the cancellation of contracts with Libya, Rosoboronexport head Anatoly Isaikin said on Wednesday. The figure includes losses of opportunity and foregone profits, he added.
Isaikin stressed that in accordance with international agreements, Russia is currently not supplying any arms to Libya. Russia has joined the arms sanctions against Libya, suspending all contracts for the supply of military hardware to the country. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday gave his backing to a UN Security Council resolution which authorized international military action in Libya. UN Resolution 1973, which Russia abstained from voting on in March, authorizes a no-fly zone over Libya and the use of "all necessary measures" to protect Libyan civilians.
Libyan forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi are fighting rebels for control of a coastal oil refinery in Zawiya, just 50km (30 miles) west of Tripoli. Heavy gunfire was reported near the refinery complex, which supplies oil and gas to the Libyan capital. Despite their recent gains, rebels face continued fire from rockets and snipers in a sixth day of fighting for Zawiya.
Control of the key town is seen as important because it straddles a major road linking Tripoli to Tunisia. If opposition forces could maintain control of Zawiya, they would have Tripoli surrounded by land, with Nato - which has been enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone to protect civilians since March - blocking sea access.
While the streets of Zawiya are now festooned with the red, black and green flag used by the rebels, earlier on Wednesday the green flags of Col Gaddafi's loyalists were still fluttering from a refinery building, Reuters reported. A reuters reporting team on Zawiyah’s outskirts said it appeared quiet on Wednesday morning. Medical workers at a hospital there said three people had been killed and 35 injured on Tuesday, most of them civilians. "There are some snipers inside the refinery facility. We control the gates of the refinery," rebel fighter Abdulkarim Kashaba told the agency in a telephone interview. He said the rebels were set to launch an assault on the refinery and heavy gunfire could be heard after rebels in cars loaded with large-calibre ammunition sped towards the refinery.
Revitalized rebel forces pushed further to isolate Tripoli and turn the screws on Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, moving toward a western town that links the capital and Sirte—Qaddafi’s hometown and a stronghold for his military. “The scouting teams of the revolutionaries reached the outskirts of Al Heisha after expelling Qaddafi forces,” the rebel military command said in a statement early Wednesday. Al Heisha lies roughly 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Misrata and 250 kilometers (150 miles) from Tripoli, near two key crossroads that link loyalist-held territory in the west with that in the oil-rich Sirte basin.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday that Col Gaddafi's "days are numbered", with anti-Gaddafi forces making advances in the east of the country, and closing in on Tripoli from the west. His upbeat tone suggested to some observers that the six-month conflict is nearing its final stages, and the rebels believe they will win this war by the end of August, says the BBC's Matthew Price in Tripoli. A Nato assessment this week said its enforcement of the UN-mandated no-fly zone to protect civilians had rendered pro-Gaddafi troops incapable of launching "coherent operations", but the alliance insists its mission is "far from over".
The rebels have always maintained that if they can reach Tripoli, then opposition supporters across the city would rise up and help defeat Col Gaddafi, but the BBC's Matthew Price says it does not feel that clear-cut in the capital. Libyan state television has called on the Libyan people to rise up against "traitors, agents and rats", with the government insisting that its forces will retake the areas they have lost in recent days. A government intelligence official captured by the rebels estimates that 70% of the capital's population back Col Gaddafi, adds our correspondent. At a news conference broadcast by Libyan state television, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim dismissed reports that Qaddafi’s forces were on the run but acknowledged fighting in several locations the rebels say they have already captured. “Be aware of the media campaign which is trying to make the rebels bigger than they are,” he told Libyan reporters. “Some foreign politicians have said this regime’s days are finished and it has weeks left. They have been saying this for six months and we are still here.”
Rebels have denied that their Benghazi-based National Transitional Council (NTC) - recognised as Libya's legitimate government by many nations - has held peace talks with representatives of Col Gaddafi. “The NTC would like to affirm that there are no negotiations either direct or indirect with the Qaddafi regime or with the special envoy of the United Nations,” said NTC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil.
Qaddafi must step down and leave Libya, he said.
“It is unthinkable to hold any negotiations or talks that disregard this basic principle.” But the BBC understands that talks involving two members of the opposition and two government ministers had taken place in Tunisia. Venezuelan officials mediated between the two sides at the talks in Djerba, which started over the weekend and finished on Tuesday, sources say. On Tuesday, a UN special envoy, Jordan's former Foreign Minister Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib, said he had met the two sides separately and informally in Tunisia.
In a barely audible telephone broadcast by state television early on Monday, Qaddafi, speaking from an undisclosed location, urged followers to liberate Libya from rebels and NATO. “The blood of martyrs is fuel for the battle,” he said.
“The end of the colonizer (NATO) is close and the end of the rats is close," he added. Funerals were held for 23 others who rebels said were killed on Monday in Zawiyah.
Colonel Qaddafi received backing from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. During a telephone call late Monday, Mr. Chavez and Mr. Ahmadinejad “discussed the situation created by the imperialist aggression against Libya and Syria, and agreed to... increase their efforts to achieve peace,” the Venezuelan foreign ministry said in a statement. But in Benghazi the head of Libya’s National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, sought to encourage regime defections, promising a fair trial for some and amnesty for others. But the invitation did not extend to Colonel Qaddafi and his closest allies, naming Colonel Qaddafi’s son Seif Al Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah Al Senussi. “Anyone who is accused, or has an (International Criminal Court) arrest warrant in his name will fall under international jurisdiction and we will not be able to accept immunity or amnesty for them.”